Germany arrests Syrian suspected of plotting attack
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Buildings and shops at the Sonnenallee, Neukoelln district in Berlin, where the suspect is believed to have had a residence.
PHOTO: AFP
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FRANKFURT - The German authorities said on Nov 2 that they had arrested a 22-year-old Syrian man in Berlin suspected of preparing a “jihadist” attack, without giving details of the alleged plot.
The suspect, arrested on Nov 1 in the capital’s southern Neukoelln district, appeared before an investigating judge on Nov 2 and was ordered remanded in custody.
He is suspected of “preparing an act of serious violence against the state” as well as “spreading propaganda material of anti-constitutional and terrorist organisations”, said a joint statement from Berlin police and prosecutors.
He was alleged to have plotted “a jihadist-motivated attack”, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Berlin told AFP earlier.
The newspaper Bild reported that a search by special police units of three Berlin residential addresses linked to the suspect had turned up items that could be used to build explosives.
The daily said the alleged plot was thought to be an attack in Berlin, but that no other details had yet emerged.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in a statement that the arrest of the Syrian showed that “the terrorist threat in Germany, though often abstract, remains heightened”.
He said the Syrian had been in Germany since 2023 and that his activities, “suggesting preparations for an attack, were detected in time”.
Germany in recent months has seen several knife attacks
Berlin remains under vigilant watch, especially since a murderous 2016 extremist attack at a Christmas market, when a truck mowed down a crowd, killing 12 people. AFP
